


Demobilization

by cravetherose



Series: Drabbles [18]
Category: Alien Quadrilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alien 3 (1992) Never Happened, Drabble Sequence, Fix-It, Found Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Multifandom Drabble Exchange, Post-Canon, Post-Movie: Aliens (1986), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Treat, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25377766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cravetherose/pseuds/cravetherose
Summary: Nobody dies at the end ofAliens!Newt goes to school, Hicks is a househusband, Ripley gets a big enough payout to settle down, they're all doing fine,just fine....The duration lasts a lot longer than the war.
Relationships: Dwayne Hicks & Ellen Ripley & Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, Dwayne Hicks/Ellen Ripley, Rebecca "Newt" Jorden & Ellen Ripley
Series: Drabbles [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1286252
Comments: 11
Kudos: 42
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020





	Demobilization

_[Week 1]_

It was an ugly modular house, nearly all plastic, with built-in sinks and a one-piece toilet and pull-out beds, in the prefab town where ex-Marines tended to cling together -- Hicks had friends there, and it was close to her brand-new shitty civilian job. It was the first place she'd ever had that was hers alone. It took almost all of her buyout -- blood money (hush money, they said in front of Newt) -- and it was utterly beautiful. 

All her clothing still had **Property of Weyland-Utani** stamped on it. Hicks thought it was funny.

_[Week 2]_

Newt came home from school early one day (it was free, not great, run by veterans) with a black eye, a look of grim triumph, and no explanation at all. Hicks called the school and confirmed that yes, she'd been sent home for fighting. They tried telling her not to fight the other kids; Newt stared at them like they were too stupid to live. One brief conference in the bathroom with the taps running later, they told her fighting wasn't done _here,_ it wasn't fair to the civilians. She'd know when it was time to fight. Newt nodded, satisfied.

_[Week 3]_

After the fighting stopped, Newt started having screaming nightmares, every night. She wouldn't say what they were about, but Ripley knew.

"The monsters?"

"Yeah."

"They won't come here."

"They _could."_

"They might. But we think they won't."

Newt just stared at her again.

They tried leaving a light on in her bedroom, sleeping with all the privacy panels flipped up, even letting her sleep between them on the big balloon mattress, but the only thing that worked was the classic bedtime story. Both of them were so bad at it they secretly flipped a coin beforehand. 

_[Week 4]_

Newt sighed at Ripley's halting attempts, but Hicks's stories annoyed her even more because they were all about handsome one-eyed pirates.

"No, tell me one about a little GIRL!"

"There was a little girl," Hicks began craftily, "and on her way to space, she met a handsome one-eyed pirate who said, 'May I ride on your spaceship?'"

"Tell MAMA to come in," Newt yelled once, and in the other room Ripley's breath stopped. She stepped away from the kitchen dehydrator and in through Newt's door. "Here I am." She sat down on the other side of the bed. 

*

That became the only routine that worked, finally, but it was bulletproof, night after night. Ripley and Hicks would sit on either side of the bed, the lights off, the core power cell glowing faintly above, a few kitchen mechanisms quietly grinding or humming. That first time, Newt prompted, "There was a little girl...."

"There was a little girl," Hicks said obediently, then looked at Ripley helplessly.

"Who went into space," Ripley added. "And she went far far away, with her mama and her papa."

"And then they came back," Hicks said helpfully. Ripley glared at him, but Newt's eyes stayed closed. _Hallelujah._

*

The adventures of the little girl, and her mama and her papa, varied occasionally, but the next part was set in stone.

They would wait, but then Newt would yank on Hicks's hand. He hid his wince. "Uh, they lived in a house...."

"With a cat and a dog," Newt said, who had never seen either. "And the monsters were _outside."_

"Outside," Hicks echoed.

"And they were _inside,"_ Newt went on, slurring a little. "With the _guns."_

"Lots of guns," Hicks said solemnly, nodding.

"And they were safe," Ripley added hastily, but by then, Newt was always already asleep.


End file.
